A Surrender

The haunting stillness of Swedish winter serves as the inspiration and backdrop for Markus Naarttijärvi’s debut monograph A Surrender.

Shot over 1,000 consecutive days, Naarttijärvi navigates spaces stuck in a liminal twilight -somewhere between death and rebirth, where human industry dissolves into nature’s embrace. Each photograph is a step in a journey of appreciation between growth and decay, society and wilderness, resistance and surrender.

With patience and persistence, Naarttijarvi transforms collapse and new growth into a meditation on impermanence while reminding us that sometimes, the only way out is through.

I follow Naarttijärvi on Glass, and his work is a joy to see every day. He’s part of why I enjoy that space. With that said, I really should be more active there and with photography. I should get my money’s worth, you know?

His message here makes me think. About what I’m passionate about. I enjoy writing, and I want to shoot more photos, things like that. About what I allow to limit me and what I don’t. Markus doesn’t allow the winter to limit his work; he embraces it. In freaking Sweden!

Even with getting a walk in, I need to refuse letting the cold talk me out of going outside. Your body learns to adjust. Fallen snow quiets the world. Some of my favorite walks have been at night, when it’s 0ºF, and there’s a little snow on the ground. The peace of those walks is like no other. Nobody else is out, so it’s just you and your peace. This is the perfect opportunity to flesh out ideas in my head and to snap photos where I can carefully frame and try things without the interference of others. The solitude is a benefit.

Markus states that surrendering is not giving up on something, but instead just marks a new beginning and giving in to what it brings. That’s a wonderful spin on what we usually view negatively. You could say I’ve surrendered to writing. Once I started, I’ve founded it hard to stop. I know that’s a bit meta to write on a blog, but I know I’ve untapped something here.

I have a break from work coming up this weekend. I’m away for seven days. I’m going to use this as an excuse to explore a bit. This is a precursor to getting a lot of steps in and plenty of cups of coffee on the go. I’m going to have days where I’m getting things done at home, but I have to get out in the world also. Maybe I start some kind of long project out of this as well.

Markus Naarttijärvi has a photo book out. You should check it out.